The Orphan and the Bird
Once upon a time, there was an orphan, named Johpokae, who lived with his grandmother. They wished to work in order to make a living, so Johpokae and his grandmother decided to plant rice and other crops in a rotational plot. Then, they started to look for an available area but there was no plot available for them because none of the villagers allowed them to do rotational farming in the community. One day, Johpokae eventually found a plot of land located in the north of the community, far away from the village. They decided to use this plot for their rotational farming, beginning with clearing the land and preparing it for farming.
One day, while the grandmother was working in the field, she saw a bird, named Tochochay. She and her grandson helped each other to catch the bird, took it home and kept it as a pet. They raised this bird by feeding it with wholegrain rice. After having raised Tochochay for a period of time, it appeared that the bird defecated silver. With curiosity, the grandmother fed more wholegrain rice to the bird, who defecated silver again. The grandmother continued feeding the bird with wholegrain rice and collected the silver it had defecated until they had enough saving. However, the story of this bird was passed on from one villager to another until it reached the ears of the king. The king was so curious that he decided to visit the grandmother and her grandson at their home, demanding to know the truth. Once the king discovered that everything he had heard about the bird was true, he ordered the grandmother to give the bird to him. To his surprise, Johpokae refused to give the bird to the king. The king was angry and punished him by arresting his grandmother and taking her to the palace.
As a result, Johpokae had to live alone by himself. Not long after that, he decided to leave home to look for his grandmother. He traveled to the palace where he had planned to search thoroughly for his grandmother. He was then told by some people that his grandmother had been imprisoned inside the palace. When the king was notified of his arrival and his plan to rescue his grandmother, the king said to him, "If you want to have your grandmother back, you have to trade her with Tochochay the Bird." Having heard that, the grandson agreed to the king’s proposal.
On the following day, Jorpokae delivered Tochochay the Bird to the king in order to exchange it with his grandmother. The King honored his proposal, returning the grandmother to Johpokae and keeping Tochochay the Bird as pet inside the palace. Unfortunately, no matter how well Tochochay was taken care of, it never defecated silver. Day after day, Tochochay was getting bigger and bigger until its body almost filled the whole village. This caused the King to be so concerned that he decided to return Tochochay, the Bird to Johpokae.
Not sure what to do, Johpokae decided to return the bird to the place where it had been originally found, which was their rotational plot in the north of the village. Unexpectedly, the release of Tochochay the Bird caused the river source in the community to dry out. This led the villagers to be in trouble because they did not have any water to use or drink. Johpokae then advised the King, "We have to recapture Tochochay and return it again to the forest at night." The King followed Johpokae 's advice by having the bird recaptured and returned to its forest during the night. It turned out that there was a big flash flood the next day, flowing into the village and drowning all the villagers to death. The only two persons who survived the flood were Johpokae and his grandmother. When it was clear that there was nobody left in the village, Johpokae eventually established himself the King.